Sharon Vanorny
Josh Ruffin’s advice on trying assertive styles: “Just take a moment and go back to it. Rinse and repeat, if necessary.”
Rule of thumb: When Josh Ruffin, a certified cicerone and the beverage supervisor at Brasserie V, is excited about a beer, you should be too.
“We tapped this beer four hours ago, and I was like, yes. Now I’m excited about tonight’s tasting,” he says.
Ruffin and I are sitting under the vintage Belgian beer signs that decorate Brasserie V’s walls, chatting over tulip-shaped glasses of Pic Tor from London-based Buxton Brewery, what’s to be the final beer in the evening’s tasting flight at the restaurant. As Brasserie V’s certified cicerone, throughout the tasting, he’ll be busy pouring and describing the seven beers and encouraging generous sampling from a cheese board he’s selected for the event.
In order to become a certified cicerone, Ruffin had to successfully demonstrate his knowledge of beer styles and their historical roots, brewing techniques, beer flavors and flaws, and bar draft system mechanics and maintenance. What this means is that he’s the one certified to ensure that the beers flowing from Brasserie V’s 26 taps and 200-plus bottles are served in the proper glasses, with the proper amount of foam.
He’s the one trained to tap multiple types of kegs and swap multiple types of keg couplers. He helps find a balance of price, style, familiarity and geographic representation for a constantly changing — and phenomenal — beer menu.
Cicerone, craft beer’s equivalent of sommelier, is an Italian word meaning “guide,” and that’s how Ruffin carries and conducts himself behind the bar or while hosting beer tastings and dinners. “He’s great at helping find the right beers for both customers and staff, explaining anything from how different beers are brewed to different flavors experienced and their nuances,” says Brasserie V owner Matt Van Nest.
Ruffin began his journey to beer guide as do many craft beer drinkers...by ordering a Sam Adams Light instead of a Bud Light, then sampling more “hoppy” beers like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Before long, it’s imperial this and bourbon-barrel-aged that.
Ruffin’s ah-ha beer moment came when (using Guinness Stout as his yardstick for dark, bold beers) he ordered a North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, a textbook definition of the intensely flavored, jet-black, high-alcohol style.
From there Ruffin sought out bottle shops and bars with different, sometimes rare selections. He read books and began writing reviews about beer. He learned all he could, and he liked sharing with others what he was learning. The desire to teach others about beer ultimately attracted Ruffin to the cicerone program at the Craft Beer Institute in Chicago.
The sheer number of breweries and styles, and variations on styles, can be overwhelming, confusing and even frustrating for some consumers. Ruffin and Van Nest work hard to train Brasserie V‘s staff on the details. And every beer on the menu can be ordered in a 4.5-ounce pour, to promote sampling and encourage new discoveries.
Still, despite his background and knowledge, he is always capable of being surprised. “I’m still tasting beers that I have no idea what to think about,” says Ruffin. “I do like when something turns what I think I know upside-down.”
Take, for example, that final beer for the tasting, the Pic Tor.
It’s a passion fruit pale ale. At first blush, Pic Tor might be considered a bit pedestrian alongside the behemoths in the Brasserie V lineup. It’s not a farmhouse ale dry-hopped aggressively with American hops and aged in chardonnay barrels. It wasn’t one of the pair of imperial stouts, one roasty and savory, and the other boozy and saccharine.
“It’d be my lawnmower beer if I won the lottery,” Ruffin says of Pic Tor. Indeed. It has a sunshine hue and refreshing bite, accentuated by higher carbonation, and it is not a typical fruit-infused pale ale that’s cloying or finishes too tart.
Adding it to the evening’s tasting is another example of Ruffin’s sense of balance when curating Brasserie V’s offerings.
The landscape of craft beer is as diverse and robust as that of wine, and experts like Ruffin know how to equip customers with what they need to navigate it. “The first time you have a beer that’s assertive, you go, ‘Okay, hold on,’ and you let your palate catch up,” says Ruffin. “Then you think, ‘Do I like this or do I hate this?’ Just take a moment and go back to it. Rinse and repeat, if necessary.”
When encountering an incredibly complex beer, Ruffin has been known to spend up to two hours finishing a 12-ounce bottle, giving the beer every chance to open up and allowing himself to reflect on each sip. The key to trying a beer for the first time? “Don’t make any knee-jerk judgments,” he says.
Much of Ruffin’s education as a cicerone has been about how flavors marry. The sensory experiences that come from pairing beer with food is another horizon Ruffin helps patrons explore. “If you’ve never had a great Belgian saison with a great camembert cheese or a barleywine with a salty blue cheese, you’ve never lived,” Ruffin says.
“Remember, pairing should be done with harmony, not unison, in mind. It should be complementary,” he adds. For instance, “A dark chocolate might taste perfectly fine with a dark, roasty stout, but you’re not going to get anything new out of it. If, on the other hand, you eat a chocolate-covered ginger slice with a dark weizenbock, or orange-infused dark chocolate with a black IPA — fireworks.”
Ruffin has a few other suggestions for matching what’s in your glass with what’s on your plate. To tame the heat in spicy foods, he recommends malty, sweeter beers, and when accentuating the spice, try a hoppy, bitter beer.
Or you can consider regionality when pairing. “Mussels and lambic are each prevalent in Belgium, and they’re delicious together. Ireland has some of the freshest shellfish off its coasts and great dry stouts to match.” And, of course, there’s good reason to pair German beers with brats.
Certainly craft beer’s constant cross-pollination between styles keeps Ruffin busy. Just a few years ago, few had ever heard of a Black IPA or would have imagined brewing a sour stout like the Bruery’s Tart of Darkness, out of Southern California. Says Ruffin: “There’s no stopping point, especially if brewers keep growing, experimenting and sharing knowledge.”
